The strange stubbornness of the Catalans
We are in a global climate crisis. Planetary warming is not stopping. The struggle of the inhabitants of the Earth is life or death... But in a tiny corner of this overpopulated globe, in southern Europe, there is a small country whose inhabitants, stubborn, are not willing to change their lifestyle to contribute to saving humanity. They refuse to have their landscapes stained with windmills and solar panels. They make many excuses, some apparently –locally– reasonable. But the result is that they continue to burn large quantities of oil and consume gas, and they have no choice but to extend the life of their dilapidated nuclear power plants, which is not recommended at all.
It is a unique global case of environmental blindness. What is wrong with these Catalans? Certainly, it is strange. Not many years ago, the environmental movement had taken root there with momentum. But now a surprising alliance has formed between the environmentalists themselves –not all of them–, hoteliers, farmers, and local politicians. How do we get out of this mess and join, without hesitation, the crusade against global warming?
A few days ago, a Catalan sage who leads from Australia the monitoring of CO₂ that humans dump on Earth, the prestigious Pep Canadell, marveled at this attitude of his compatriots. "That in 2026 in Catalonia we are still discussing where solar panels or windmills should be placed, and that decisions are postponed for another year, is something out of this world". And he wondered: "How can it be that the renewable network is not being deployed at full speed? We cannot wait any longer: we must go all out". Will we listen to him or will we remain installed in the nimby attitude: not in my back yard?
The Government's renewable energy plan, the PLATER, has received no less than 12,000 allegations. Hardly anyone wants windmills or solar panels. Incredible. And to think we have forests left to their own devices, fuel for fires, and abandoned agricultural land. But no. This stubbornness is incomprehensible. And this has happened this summer, when in so many homes air conditioners and fans were being installed to combat the extreme heat. More electricity consumption. And when there was a new wave of major fires. And when the Strait of Hormuz remained blocked by the Iran-USA war, with the consequent rise in the price of gas and oil. It is also for economic interest that it is time to promote renewables.
If no one wants to give in, in the end it will be necessary to decree the obligation for all municipalities to promote a municipal solar park and wind farm. The old environmentalist motto said think global, act local. Well, in our home we think locally and expect others to act. Man! The fact is that others are indeed acting. Electrification with renewables is advancing at full speed in China, India, Pakistan... Also in Africa. They have understood that it is not just a matter of saving the planet, but that it pays off for them. And of course in many European countries, sown with panels despite having less sun than us. Here we resemble Trump's USA, which is driving with the handbrake on and doesn't give a damn about climate change. Have we gone crazy or what?
"We will have a warmer world and we will suffer severe impacts, yes, but the race to avoid collapse has already begun and it will not stop," says, optimistically, Pep Canadell. Do we Catalans want to participate in this race or do we want to stay at the tail, pretending, as if it had nothing to do with us? What would one of the great fathers of world ecology, the biologist Ramon Margalef, tell us if he were alive? The total eclipse that we have been able to see this summer, so beautiful, can also be read as a metaphor: are we drifting enthralled towards a climate eclipse, only concerned with the immaculate beauty of our landscapes? Humans have transformed the landscape since time immemorial. We have built villages and cities, we have converted forests into fields of cultivation, we have made roads, bridges, ports. With industrialization, we sowed the cities with chimneys that we now protect as architectural heritage. In the future, the current windmills that remain standing will also be protected. Now it is time to build them. And if we do not build them, many HVTLs (high-voltage transmission lines) will fall upon us to bring energy from outside. Let's get our act together, please.